


Spider

by IShouldBeWriting



Category: Avengers (Comics), Avengers (Secret War)
Genre: Community: 31_days, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-04
Updated: 2013-05-04
Packaged: 2017-12-10 08:29:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 394
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/783970
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IShouldBeWriting/pseuds/IShouldBeWriting
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sometimes, Maria really hates the way he makes her see.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Spider

**Author's Note:**

> This fic is presumptive of anything and everything in Avengers comic-verse canon up till the "Secret War" storyline.

Damn you, Nick Fury, for making me respect you again. Despite how much she wanted that thought to contain all of her pent up anger at her superior, Maria found that she just couldn’t muster up the blazing heat which her feelings of resentment toward him had once contained. 

Standing by his bedside in medical, she looked down at him. _So vulnerable,_ she thought. _It would be so very easy to take him out. Right now. One less obstacle between me and advancement. One less person to answer to in the chain of command. One more inch of latitude to use my own judgement._

But she couldn’t do it. Despite the fact that no one would miss him - everyone believing him to have died already - she couldn’t bring herself to kill someone as cunning and adept as he was at wielding the political power inherent in this position. She respected him. And damn but she hated him for having made her see things that way. 

When she’d first started working for him, he’d been just another piece on the chessboard. Just another rook to maneuver around in her long, slow, climb to the place where she belonged. At times, she’d hated him simply for the fact that he existed, stood in her way. At times, she’d grudgingly found herself marveling at how well he manipulated the situations he was presented with to his advantage. _Watch and learn, Maria_ she’d told herself. _Even someone you don’t care about can be a teacher, an opportunity for avoiding making the same mistakes yourself._

And she had learned. Much as it galled her to admit it, watching Nick Fury - master spy and strategist - work was a thing of beauty. Even this, his latest ploy to cheat death, cheat his enemies of their prize, had been a masterwork. She could only marvel at the level of detail with which he was capable of weaving his webs, even as she cursed him for having ensnared her in them like the rest of his prey. 

She wanted to badly not to see him as a person, not to respect the hell out of him for his skill. But, standing beside his prone form as he recovered once again, Maria admitted to herself that she couldn’t manage it any more. _Damn the man. And damn me for having fallen for his trap._


End file.
